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Last night, before going away for the night, I moved my Legerra out of the garage and parked it on the drive under my deluxe car cover. This morning it was gone!It has two sewn-in straps which go…Continue

My Pinto engine Legerra has developed a rather irritating carburettor problem, where the secondary throttle does not close fully unless I snap the throttle shut. Normally this manifests itself when I…Continue

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"Yes, it definitely is a photochop - it's one of my best! I can't remember why I did it, probably just the challenge. It was Dave Adams car, at the time, and the biggest challenge was extending the background (trees and garage). If I did it…"

"I like the camouflage one. There was another one with a similar paint job that I saw a picture of a few years ago - as I recall that was a drophead. I fancy that it had a mock machine gun on the back - or was that only in my imagination?"

"The car was owned by someone in Sunderland and I was told that it was painted by a body shop to practice for repairing Nissan Micras. That might be true. I don't think it was a very good job but it does look nice in the right light and from…"

"That was at Castle Combe - my 'local' circuit. I'm going there again near the end of April but I need to sort out my car's rough running first.
I have them down as Cosworth wheels because that was what they were listed as on…"

"Nice work, Ade. I think it could do with a bit of a curve on the top but that is hard to invent. You could do the top as if it were vinyl covered, so all just black and shades of grey.
Obviously it needs a duck tail ... and maybe a separate spoiler?"

"That is looking good. I like the wheels with it, they are a bit different and they have a clean, fresh look to them which goes well with the bodywork colour.
I don't normally like those wheels and I would normally prefer the Wellers, but not in…"

"I think that the 'natural' shape for a hard top would be with a little bulge (much more than the Dutton top has) because that is what the air does to my soft top. This is at about 35-40mph, it increases with speed.
However, some of the…"

"After family left at lunchtime, I was able top get a few hours in the garage to fiddle with the drivers side of the tub. Having already cut the tub in half, I cut the drivers side in half again. and then I cut the floor in half again so that I could…"

"Hello James, No, thers not many here. There is an old Dutton sierra that has been here forever and that is about it. My phaeton is from 1980 and runs but needs a bit of work. It has a small petrol tank in the boot so I suspect its been used for hill…"

"I found that the best way to make my garage tidier was to build a new one and spread the stuff between them. Of course everything I need is always in the other garage, no matter which one I'm in at the time!"

James Doulton's Blog

Today I bought another Dutton. This one has a 3.1 litre Essex V6. It's MOT has lapsed and it has a number of issues, the biggest one being that it has had a front end shunt which has upset the suspension geometry, and the bonnet fit, and the steering. The last 6 inches of the main rail is crumpled, moving the ARB. Finding a good reference to work from to restore the geometry looks to be an interesting puzzle. In this picture you can see that the nearside wheel has a different camber to the…

I went to the KitNet track day at Castle Combe today in my Legerra. It was cracking weather and I had a good day. There were positives and some negatives. So starting with then the positives: My new tyres performed well and took 5 seconds off my lap times (down to 1m 35sec), I finally got the Legerra over the ton at 100.3mph on the straight, I met a load of nice chaps and did a lot of chatting plus, to round off the day, I drove it home at the end of the day. Two of the chaps were Duttons -…

After getting the Legerra home a few weeks ago, I have been using it as my daily commute. I have done a few things to it to 'improve' it:

1) I have removed the centre console because I could not take my foot off the clutch with it in place because I have to get my knee next to the steering wheel and my calf was hard against the edge of the console. I have still got to find a place for the dials and switches that were there. When removing the heater controls I found that the outer…

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Hello James, No, thers not many here. There is an old Dutton sierra that has been here forever and that is about it. My phaeton is from 1980 and runs but needs a bit of work. It has a small petrol tank in the boot so I suspect its been used for hill climb type events. I guess I would need to put a proper tank in if its to go back on the road.

Not road Worthy yet but getting there. She was in a bit of a state when I bought her but she's coming on in leaps and bounds. She now stars stops and drives. I've started a light restoration of the car. Hopefully she will be at stoneleigh this year.

Thanks for the welcome James. I'm currently looking into (hopefully) buying a Dutton, most likely a Phaeton or a Melos. Until about a year ago i poured blood, sweat, tears & money into a 1975 MG Midget, but since selling I've been itching to get something else and finding I've got time on my hands.

However, with a baby on the way, it might not happen just yet (!) but the money from the sale is set aside for another car, so fingers crossed it will be sooner and not in 18 years' time...!

No not my handy work. I have recently acquired the Melos and am working through it back to front! It has had a 5 link rear conversion at some time so I am stripping it all down. Zetec install is not that good as it is on Zenith carbs that arn.t properly jetted or set up, so that's the next task!